Thalia @ Pictures in the Words

Who am I, and why in the world did I wait so long to read this book?

Almost immediately, I fell in love with Stephanie Perkins’ writing and the world she created. Anna was funny and spunky—exactly the heroine perfect for this type of cutesy and adorable novel. This is almost a perfect chick-lit book. It makes you laugh, it makes your heart squeeze like a tight coil has been wrapped around it a thousand times, and it makes you wish, more than anything, that these sorts of fairytales really did come true.

Anna and the French Kiss was a quirky and sweet book, full of the best kind of love—the kind that develops over an entire friendship and is only strengthened by ups and downs. St. Clair, Anna’s new English/French/American best friend, ended up being a completely swoon-worthy love interest, and right from the get-go, I fell in love with their story. I was so close to giving this one five stars—so ridiculously close that it pains me that there were parts that prevented it from reaching perfection in my eyes. However, despite those flaws, I would recommend this book in a heartbeat—it was almost everything I could have asked for from this genre, and I will most definitely be reading more of Perkins’ work in the future. I’ve found a new author to fall in love with!

What I Liked: Spoilers!

• To be perfectly honest, chick-lit is my favorite genre. I’m a romantic at heart, and nothing makes me happier than a cheesier-than-mozzarella-sticks, falling-in-love, happily-ever-after storyline. I love that feeling in your heart and your chest—the clenching, the deep breaths, the stomach-in-knots experience that goes along with a genuinely well written piece of chick-lit. Anna and the French Kiss was all that and so much more. I’m usually wary of boys in books with British accents and too-dorky personalities, because it seems so ridiculously cliché at this point. But even I, skeptical as I was (and as much as I felt betrayed by the fact that St. Clair wasn’t actually French), couldn’t help but fall in love with the idea of him, nearly as much as Anna fell in love with him herself. Anna and St. Clair just clicked, and more than anything, I appreciated the way we got to see their story grow. They were friends in the beginning, and best friends later on, and something more at the very end. Who doesn’t want to fall in love with someone who feels like a best friend? There were little moments littered throughout the entire novel, escalating and growing in importance until the very end, and every single one of those moments made you feel like you were going to explode with feelings. I got to a point where I felt like I just couldn’t put it down because I didn’t want to miss anything—I wanted more, but I didn’t want it to end at the same time. This book had a perfect mix of everything a girl could ask for in a book like this, and I walked away at the end feeling more than satisfied. To put it bluntly, I was definitely a happy little fangirl.

• I really did adore Perkins’ writing. Anna’s narration was realistic, witty, and honest. Most of what she said to herself in her head were things I could picture thinking to myself if I were in the same situation. We were able to follow her thought process and understand where she was coming from, and it was so well written that it felt like an absolute breath of fresh air. I think too many novels nowadays try to skate by on a good story and interesting characters, and not enough are just good writing. Perkins can write, and I think I could read anything by her and still fall in love with it. I love her style.

What I Didn’t Like:

• The first thing that bothered me about this was the fact that Anna would switch back and forth from calling “him” St. Clair or Étienne. She began the novel by saying St. Clair, but when she “fell in love” with him, he became Étienne. And when she was mad at him, he went back to being St. Clair. And when he was in her good graces, it was Étienne yet again. I couldn’t call him Étienne, because I’d gone through almost the whole novel thinking of him as St. Clair. It probably shouldn’t have gotten in the way of how much I loved the story, but the name switch, while I understand its symbolism, was unrealistic in practice and execution.

• I don’t like unnecessary drama, especially in chick-lit because it happens way too often. For about seventy-five pages in the book, everything got shot to heck and back again, and quite frankly, Anna’s behavior downright pissed me off. St. Clair would run off to his girlfriend when things got weird, and Anna would get angry about it. I think the tipping point for me was when, for her birthday, Anna gets drunk and dances with St. Clair. One of Ellie’s (St. Clair’s girlfriend) friends sees him and tells Ellie and he freaks out because he doesn’t want her to be mad. Drunk-Anna snaps at him that she’s been right there the whole time and he should have broken up with Ellie a long time ago. Anna suddenly goes from wondering how St. Clair feels about her to assuming that he would much rather be with her than with Ellie, and treats him with contempt every time the subject is mentioned. She even takes the immature “I’m going to date someone else to make you jealous” route, and there were so many misunderstandings and unnecessary conflicts that I got a headache. I wish these books wouldn’t assume that things need to be as dramatic as possible—I would have been content with the simple conflict already presented (falling in love with your best friend who is already dating someone) without all the extra stuff being thrown at me. I would have really loved this book if it hadn’t been for all that.

Overall: Well, I have to admit, the hype for this book is totally called for. It was a wonderful read, and I wish I could read it again for the first time—over and over and over again. If you’re craving chick-lit, or just a well-written novel, this is definitely the book you should turn to. It’ll fulfill all your desires and make you wish you could move to Paris right now and meet a St. Clair of your own. I’m definitely going to read all of Perkins’ books that I can get my hands on, and I’ll be recommending this all over the place! And, on the other plus side, it was fairly clean—very little content (some allusions to Josh and Rashmi, two of their friends, sleeping together; same with St. Clair and Ellie; a few f-words, but not much language aside), and I think it would probably be alright for ages fourteen and older. I’m so glad I stopped waiting to read this book, because now I understand why everyone loves it so much!

(http://thaliasbooks.tumblr.com/post/85984000822/anna-and-the-french-kiss-review)